Files
BMAD-METHOD/docs/explanation/faq/brownfield-faq.md
Alex Verkhovsky 2e16650067 feat(docs): Diataxis restructure + Astro/Starlight migration (#1263)
* feat(docs): add Diataxis folder structure and update sidebar styling

- Create tutorials, how-to, explanation, reference directories with subdirectories
- Add index.md files for each main Diataxis section
- Update homepage with Diataxis card navigation layout
- Implement clean React Native-inspired sidebar styling
- Convert sidebar to autogenerated for both Diataxis and legacy sections
- Update docusaurus config with dark mode default and navbar changes

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): migrate Phase 1 files to Diataxis structure

Move 21 files to new locations:
- Tutorials: quick-start guides, agent creation guide
- How-To: installation, customization, workflows
- Explanation: core concepts, features, game-dev, builder
- Reference: merged glossary from BMM and BMGD

Also:
- Copy images to new locations
- Update internal links via migration script (73 links updated)
- Build verified successfully

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(docs): add category labels for sidebar folders

Add _category_.json files to control display labels and position
for autogenerated sidebar categories.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* style(docs): improve welcome page and visual styling

- Rewrite index.md with React Native-inspired welcoming layout
- Add Diataxis section cards with descriptions
- Remove sidebar separator, add spacing instead
- Increase navbar padding with responsive breakpoints
- Add rounded admonitions without left border bar
- Use system font stack for better readability
- Add lighter chevron styling in sidebar
- Constrain max-width to 1600px for wide viewports

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix: use baseUrl in meta tag paths for correct deployment URLs

* feat(docs): complete Phase 2 - split files and fix broken links

Phase 2 of Diataxis migration:
- Split 16 large legacy files into 42+ focused documents
- Created FAQ section with 7 topic-specific files
- Created brownfield how-to guides (3 files)
- Created workflow how-to guides (15+ files)
- Created architecture explanation files (3 files)
- Created TEA/testing explanation files
- Moved remaining legacy module files to proper Diataxis locations

Link fixes:
- Fixed ~50 broken internal links across documentation
- Updated relative paths for new file locations
- Created missing index files for installation, advanced tutorials
- Simplified TOC anchors to fix Docusaurus warnings

Cleanup:
- Removed legacy sidebar entries for deleted folders
- Deleted duplicate and empty placeholder files
- Moved workflow diagram assets to tutorials/images

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(build): use file glob instead of sidebar parsing for llms-full.txt

Replace brittle sidebar.js regex parsing with recursive file glob.
The old approach captured non-file strings like 'autogenerated' and
category labels, resulting in only 5 files being processed.

Now correctly processes all 86+ markdown files (~95k tokens).

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(seo): use absolute URLs in AI meta tags for agent discoverability

AI web-browsing agents couldn't follow relative paths in meta tags due to
URL security restrictions. Changed llms-full.txt and llms.txt meta tag
URLs from relative (baseUrl) to absolute (urlParts.origin + baseUrl).

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(docs): recategorize misplaced files per Diataxis analysis

Phase 2.5 categorization fixes based on post-migration analysis:

Moved to correct Diataxis categories:
- tutorials/installation.md → deleted (duplicate of how-to/install-bmad.md)
- tutorials/brownfield-onboarding.md → how-to/brownfield/index.md
- reference/faq/* (8 files) → explanation/faq/
- reference/agents/barry-quick-flow.md → explanation/agents/
- reference/agents/bmgd-agents.md → explanation/game-dev/agents.md

Created:
- explanation/agents/index.md

Fixed all broken internal links (14 total)

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): add Getting Started tutorial and simplify build script

- Add comprehensive Getting Started tutorial with installation as Step 1
- Simplify build-docs.js to read directly from docs/ (no consolidation)
- Remove backup/restore dance that could corrupt docs folder on build failure
- Remove ~150 lines of unused consolidation code

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(css): use fixed width layout to prevent content shifting

Apply React Native docs approach: set both width and max-width at
largest breakpoint (1400px) so content area maintains consistent
size regardless of content length. Switches to fluid 100% below
1416px breakpoint.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(docs): restructure tutorials with renamed entry point

- Rename index.md to bmad-tutorial.md for clearer navigation
- Remove redundant tutorials/index.md
- Update sidebar and config references

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): add tutorial style guide and AI agent announcement bar

- Add docs/_contributing/ with tutorial style guide
- Reformat quick-start-bmm.md and bmad-tutorial.md per style guide
- Remove horizontal separators, add strategic admonitions
- Add persistent announcement bar for AI agents directing to llms-full.txt
- Fix footer broken link to tutorials

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): add markdown demo page and UI refinements

- Add comprehensive markdown-demo.md for style testing
- Remove doc category links from navbar (use sidebar instead)
- Remove card buttons from welcome page
- Add dark mode styling for announcement bar
- Clean up index.md card layout

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(docs): apply unified tutorial style and update references

- Reformat create-custom-agent.md to follow tutorial style guide
- Update tutorial-style.md with complete unified structure
- Update all internal references to renamed tutorial files
- Remove obsolete advanced/index.md

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* refactor(docs): migrate from Docusaurus to Astro+Starlight

Replace Docusaurus with Astro and the Starlight documentation theme
for improved performance, better customization, and modern tooling.

Build pipeline changes:
- New build-docs.js orchestrates link checking, artifact generation,
  and Astro build in sequence
- Add check-doc-links.js for validating internal links and anchors
- Generate llms.txt and llms-full.txt for LLM-friendly documentation
- Create downloadable source bundles (bmad-sources.zip, bmad-prompts.zip)
- Suppress MODULE_TYPELESS_PACKAGE_JSON warning in Astro build
- Output directly to build/site for cleaner deployment

Website architecture:
- Add rehype-markdown-links.js plugin to transform .md links to routes
- Add site-url.js helper for GitHub Pages URL resolution with strict
  validation (throws on invalid GITHUB_REPOSITORY format)
- Custom Astro components: Banner, Header, MobileMenuFooter
- Symlink docs/ into website/src/content/docs for Starlight

Documentation cleanup:
- Remove Docusaurus _category_.json files (Starlight uses frontmatter)
- Convert all docs to use YAML frontmatter with title field
- Move downloads.md from website/src/pages to docs/
- Consolidate style guide and workflow diagram docs
- Add 404.md and tutorials/index.md

---------

Co-authored-by: forcetrainer <bryan@inagaki.us>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-01-07 14:42:15 +08:00

2.8 KiB

title, description
title description
Brownfield Development FAQ Common questions about brownfield development in the BMad Method

Quick answers to common questions about brownfield (existing codebase) development in the BMad Method.


Q: What is brownfield vs greenfield?

A:

  • Greenfield: New project, starting from scratch, clean slate
  • Brownfield: Existing project, working with established codebase and patterns

Q: Do I have to run document-project for brownfield?

A: Highly recommended, especially if:

  • No existing documentation
  • Documentation is outdated
  • AI agents need context about existing code
  • Level 2-4 complexity

You can skip it if you have comprehensive, up-to-date documentation including docs/index.md.

Q: What if I forget to run document-project on brownfield?

A: Workflows will lack context about existing code. You may get:

  • Suggestions that don't match existing patterns
  • Integration approaches that miss existing APIs
  • Architecture that conflicts with current structure

Run document-project and restart planning with proper context.

Q: Can I use Quick Spec Flow for brownfield projects?

A: Yes! Quick Spec Flow works great for brownfield. It will:

  • Auto-detect your existing stack
  • Analyze brownfield code patterns
  • Detect conventions and ask for confirmation
  • Generate context-rich tech-spec that respects existing code

Perfect for bug fixes and small features in existing codebases.

Q: How does workflow-init handle brownfield with old planning docs?

A: workflow-init asks about YOUR current work first, then uses old artifacts as context:

  1. Shows what it found (old PRD, epics, etc.)
  2. Asks: "Is this work in progress, previous effort, or proposed work?"
  3. If previous effort: Asks you to describe your NEW work
  4. Determines level based on YOUR work, not old artifacts

This prevents old Level 3 PRDs from forcing Level 3 workflow for new Level 0 bug fix.

Q: What if my existing code doesn't follow best practices?

A: Quick Spec Flow detects your conventions and asks: "Should I follow these existing conventions?" You decide:

  • Yes → Maintain consistency with current codebase
  • No → Establish new standards (document why in tech-spec)

BMM respects your choice - it won't force modernization, but it will offer it.



Have a question not answered here? Please open an issue or ask in Discord so we can add it!